THE BEST KIND OF GIFT

I agree and disagree with you Inez. I do not give to organized charities because I am paying public relations people to put intellectually insulting ads on radio and television and sending barely one penny of my dollar to the needy. I think charities are as obnoxious and grasping as merchants during this season. I have a friend who goes with her children to a soup kitchen to help serve every Christmas. My own feeling is connected to my observations about Tikkum Okam in my previous post. I need to learn to give of myself freely for the joy it gives me and for nothing else all year round. That is my debt to the world that I must pay because I am human. Perhaps because I am Jewish Christmas does not compel me to give any more than a week from next Tuesday.
However, we live in a fractured, imperfect world and life moves so fast we often forget to tell those we care about how dear they are to us. It is good to have a time of year to do that. The atmosphere at Christmas, the beauty of the lights, the magnificence of the music fills me with a remarkable, ever-fresh surge of happiness at being alive and among others celebrating our connection with one another. I have no advice on what to teach your children. I have been spending time with a young lady who has made a career of taking from others and I think that is so very sad because she has lost herself. I think perhaps the answer is to teach our children that participating in human experiences is the real gift we share with one another. All that pressure to buy buy buy and take take take and all the emphasis an what you deserve because you are young, old, infirm, green, black or blue is all part of the brainwashing this country fosters. So think small; think kindness; think connection...... and have a happy holiday .